Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: This six-part British TV series is imported by Showtime as a Sunday night summer feature – and get used to it, because during the pandemic, a lot of networks and streaming services will be dipping deeply into available resources and inventories to fill schedules. This one is about Freddy, an alluring woman played by Hermoine Corfield (pictured), who has two primary jobs: phone-sex operator and killer. She’s pursued by a pair of cops, played by Eve Myles and Babou Ceesay, and if We Hunt Together sounds a lot like Killing Eve, well, that’s sort of what this show is going for.
Discovery, 9:00 p.m. ET
Shark Week, on Discovery, is one of those annual cable TV traditions that demand a visit each year – if only for a momentary check-in and pop-in, as with Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl. Shark Week began back in 1988, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House – and is still going, presenting a yearly summer week of programs that run the gamut from informative nature documentaries to absurd TV stunts. Guess which category Tyson vs. Jaws falls into? Don’t expect much of a duel – in fact, don’t expect much, period. But Discovery already was closing in on its first completed decade of Shark Week back in 1997, when Mike Tyson had a rematch against fellow heavyweight boxer Evander Holyfield – and, infamously, bit off part of Holyfield’s ear. So at least, in that respect, Tyson vs. Jaws can almost be considered a fair fight…
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: I love that HBO is calling tonight’s conclusion to this eight-part miniseries a season finale, rather than a series finale. That means there will be more of Matthew Rhys as Perry, which is good news indeed. And speaking of good, tonight’s final episode of Perry Mason, for now, certainly is that.
TCM, 2:00 a.m. ET
Richard Brooks, who also directed Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and In Cold Blood, wrote and directed this 1971 action movie – which is one of my favorite underrated films. Warren Beatty stars as a security consultant for a German bank, who has a novel concept for robbing his own bank: Steal from the safety deposit boxes of people stashing illegal loot and gains, because, as he explains to his prostitute girlfriend (played by Goldie Hawn), crooks can’t call cops. And the prostitute, through her liaisons, identifies the targets. The result is an astoundingly exciting bank heist, followed by one of the longest and most involved chase sequences in film history (by car! on foot! by train! even, for real, on ice!!). And the whole thing is propelled by a supercharged musical score by Quincy Jones, who manages to incorporate – in the same movie soundtrack – Roberta Flack, Doug Kershaw, and Little Richard.